Arna Bontemps Summary

Arna Bontemps (1902-1973) was an accomplished librarian, historian, editor, poet, critic, and novelist. His diverse occupations were unified by the common goal of forwarding a social and intellectual ... Read more

Poet, critic, playwright, novelist, historian, educator, librarian, writer of children's books, Arna Bontemps was also a voracious reader, devoted family man, pioneering Afro-American literary figure,... Read more

Critical Essay by W.e.b. Dubois Arna Bontemps' first venture in fiction ["God Sends Sunday"] is to me a profound disappointment. It is of the school of "Nigger Heaven�... Read more

Critical Essay by Hugh M. Gloster God Sends Sunday follows Nigger Heaven in its emphasis upon sex and fast living, but differs in its introduction of a main character who is a celebrated jockey and a... Read more

Critical Essay by Brian Neal Odell Purporting to be a biography of [Frederick] Douglass, Free at Last reads more like a novel. Emphasized throughout are the protagonist's secret musings, the a... Read more

Critical Essay by Don David Guttenplan This collection of more than forty years of correspondence [Arna Bontemps—Langston Hughes Letters (1925–1967)] is a delight…. [There] is... Read more

Critical Essay by Mary Helen Washington [Arna Bontemps—Langston Hughes Letters 1925–1967 constitutes] a kind of collective authority. In surveying the American literary scene for a half... Read more